Willow's Redemption
by DameonCain
Summary: This is a repost from my old ACCT ( I forgot the password and the email I used is no longer in use ) Willow wants nothing more but to have Tara back, but what happens when her nightmares are trying to tell her something? Will she be ready to do what she knows in her heart she has to do to get her blondie back?


She wakes up covered in sweat. The sound. The Smell. And she did all of it. She can't escape the dreams. But there is something about them. They seem real, like something is coming and they won't know what to do to stop it. She gets up and walks to the bathroom. "C'mon Will, get a grip on yourself. Buffy is the one with the prophetic dreams, not you!" With this said Willow went back and curled up next to Kennedy in bed.

The next morning, Willow got dressed and ran down to the kitchen to help with breakfast. "Hey Will, can I talk to you a minute?" Her best friend asked her. "Sure Buff, I'll be right there." She called back as Buffy made her way outside. After Willow gulped down her orange juice, she ran outside to catch up to Buffy.

"What's up?" She asked the blonde. "Will, I had a dream last night. Warren was in it, he was a demon, and you were also in it. So please tell me, either you had this dream also or I'm losing what's left of my mind." With her disappointed look Willow shook her head. "Ok so at least we know I'm not losing my head. I want to keep this between us Will. You go do the book work, I'll do the hard stuff." Willow walked in the house and began her research.

That night during patrol all Buffy encountered was a few puny vamps. "Dammit, I hope Willow can find something out." She said to herself. When she got back to the house, she found a distraught Willow. "Will, what's wrong?"

"Buffy, that was one of your prophetic dreams. I just can't understand why I was involved."

"Don't worry Will we will figure it out." Buffy reassured her.

"Oh come on Red, you can do better than that. You flayed me and you can't even figure out how to kill me a second time? That's so sad you poor excuse for a witch." The remains of Warrens skinless body spat in Willow's face. She jumped up out of bed again and immediately went to Buffy's room. "Buffy, you awake?"

"Yeah Will, come in."

"I had another dream." Willow told her.

"Was Warren in it?" Buffy asked.

"Yes," Willow went on to tell Buffy what happened in the dream.

"Wow Will, I don't know what to say about that one. I had one with him in it but he just laughed at me."

Willow lay in Buffy's bed and talked to the slayer about what the dreams could mean. "Lets wait a few more days Will, and then we will talk to Giles about it."

"Yeah." The redhead drifted off to sleep.

A week later Giles had returned from London. "Giles, normally we'd give you a big ol' party, but right now we need to talk to you in private." Buffy grabbed her watcher and drug him to the kitchen where Willow awaited them. Willow and Buffy went on to tell Giles about their dreams. Puzzled as he was, Giles just did his usual, "we'll do some research."

Willow was fast asleep in her bed, with Kennedy snuggled up next to her, having another dream. "Tara? Is that you?" Willow said, confused.

"Yes love, it is. I came to warn you, Buffy can't defeat it."

"Defeat what?" Willow reached out to touch the beautiful blonde but her hand just went right through her.

"What's coming. But if everything goes well, you can have your redemption."

"What are you talking about Tara?"

Tara smiled her crooked smile and disappeared. Willow woke up with a tear stained face. She walked downstairs to find everyone hard on the research. Willow searched for Buffy. "She went to get some coffee." Xander said.

'What's wrong with you Willow,' she thought to herself. 'You know that he is gonna return but you can't figure out how you can kill him again. You know it's not the First this time. Now think.' About this time Buffy had returned with coffee for everyone.

Buffy noticed that Willow seemed a little more upset than usual and went to find out what was wrong with her best friend. After Willow told her the dream, Buffy made a silent vow to not let Willow die in anyway, not matter what it would mean. Willow was now an earth goddess and there wasn't anyway she'd let her friend lose that title.

A month had passed since Buffy and Willow had the dreams. They had started to forget about them, but once again they had the dreams.

They were running through the woods, using Anya's feel for vengeance to hunt her down. Soon they found her, Dark Willow, the Willow who had drained all the magic from the dark arts books in the magic shop and went all dark haired and stuff. She had Warren entangled between two trees and was telling him about how his screaming wouldn't save him. "Bored now," escaped Willow's lips and Warrens skin flew off him making an unexplainable sound and god awful smell. But unlike the real life scene that happened four years before the skinless body of Warren looked at what was now a normal looking Willow. His eyes glowed red and he jerked his hands down from the limbs that held him between the two trees. Smiling, he focused on the red head standing in front of him. "What did you think you'd find out anything this easy bitch?" With a flash he was gone.

Buffy got up the next morning to find everyone in frenzy. "What the hell is going on?" Buffy asked. "It's Willow," Xander started. "She took off in the middle of the night and no one can find her." Buffy's eyes went straight from scared, to defensive. Ever since Willow's return from London, Buffy has gotten a little defensive over her best friend. "I have an idea on where to look. Xander, Andrew, Faith, Dawn, and Kennedy you go looking around the town. Giles, you stay here and man the home front in case she calls. I am going to look around the woods." Buffy grabbed her jacket and ran out the door before anyone could protest anything.

"If she's where I think she is, I have to get there fast." Instantly Buffy's slayer powers kicked in and she ran to the site where Warren Meers had died four years ago at the hands of Willow Rosenberg. The place had appeared like no one had passed through there since that night. In Buffy's head she could hear Warren's screams, the sickening sound his skin made when it ripped from his body, and the horrible smell it left behind. And she saw her best friend and even though she wasn't a vengeance demon, she could smell her thirst for vengeance caused by Tara's untimely death. These flashbacks were interrupted by what sounded like Willow's scream.

Buffy quickly ran to the source of the scream and found Willow in the same entanglement that she had put Warren in all those years ago. The body of Warren Meers stood in front of her. But he had some of his skin back, around his face and some on his chest. Buffy hid herself to see what was going on. "Let me go Warren I'm not that Willow anymore."

"You think it's that easy bitch? I don't care if you are straight and Christian now. You sent me to hell, and I haven't been happier, well I will be when I kill you, you SLUT!"

Willow whispered something and the branches fell from around her wrists and ankles and she fell to the ground, revealing Dark Willow once more. "You want a fight Warren, you got one. See this time, I won't be consumed by the dark magic, I am an Earth Goddess now, I can take this form without a second thought."

"Good now we can fight like real men."

"Hold the hell on you two," Buffy ran out from where she was hiding. "No one is fighting dammit and I mean it." She punched Warren in the face, but it didn't faze him.

Whilst Warren and Buffy were fighting, Willow got a vision of Tara again. "The only way he can get sent back is if he kills her, but you will know what to do if that happens."

Willow was fighting back tears, for seeing Tara again keeps bringing back all memories, the good, the bad, and the funny. She walks up to where her best friend is fighting what seems to be the demon form of whom she killed four years ago. By the time she got to them, Osiris was standing before the three of them. "You Imbecile. You weren't meant to kill the slayer. The spell you did was only meant to keep you here if you killed she who killed you!" He said in his booming, powerful voice.

"I know but she got in the way," Warren stuttered. Osiris snapped his fingers and in a whirl of black magic he and Warren both disappeared. Willow stared down at the lifeless body of her best friend since sophomore year in high school. She leaned down beside Buffy's lifeless body and cried. After doing this for a few minutes, she remembered what her beautiful, blonde soul mate had told her. _The only way he can get sent back is if he kills her, but you will know what to do if that happens,_ echoed in Willows thoughts for a few minutes. A weak smile crept across Willow's face. I know your gonna hate me extra this time Buffy, but you're not meant to be dead yet, and this is my chance to redeem myself completely and be with Tara forever, like we are supposed to be. Willow took a few minutes to write Buffy a letter. When she was finished she folded it, and wrote _DO NOT OPEN UNTIL YOU GET BACK HOME_. She made sure Buffy would find the note when she awoke and found Willow lying beside her. Willow placed her hand on Buffy's chest and started her incantation. "I give you my life, my essence, my blood, my breath in place of your death. May you live the life we both wanted." With a final breath Willow fell lifeless beside Buffy.

An hour later Buffy awoke, with a grogginess headache that felt like a weeks worth of hangovers. The last thing she remembered was Warren snapping her neck, so why wasn't she dead? She looked around her for a sign of Warren anywhere but all she found was the lifeless body of Willow. She saw that Willow had something clutched tightly in her hand, when she noticed it said _DO NOT OPEN UNTIL YOU GET BACK HOME;_she picked up the lifeless body of her redheaded best friend and began the long walk to her home. She managed to open the front door and laid Willow's body on the couch.

When they heard the front door open everyone ran down stairs. They saw Buffy standing at the couch with tears running down her face. The first one to reach her was Kennedy. When she saw her girlfriend's lifeless body she collapsed to the floor in tears. "Everyone," Buffy said crying. "Can you all keep yourselves together long enough for me to read this?" She held up the note that her friend had clutched in her hand and began to read.

"Dear Buffy,

"Those dreams we were having, they were telling us something. We couldn't figure it out but as you were fighting Warren I realized what was meant to happen. I hope you don't hate me again like you did the first time I did this. But this was how I was supposed to be with Tara again. If Warren had killed me instead of you, he would have been able to walk here again as a demon, but in human form.

"Please Buffy don't hate me, but only remember I gave you my life. It was meant to happen this way. The big bad witch turned good again. Now I'm the Earth Goddess who gave her life to save her best friend. Tell Kennedy I love her, but that like I told her, Tara and I were meant to be forever, and this is how it was to happen. Tell Dawnie that she was like the little sister I never had. Tell Xander that next to you, he was the bestest friend a girl could ask for. And you Buffy, you did it all, saved the world with us all by your side numerous times. You died three times now saving those you love, but I have to ask you, how does it feel knowing that someone else gave their life for you instead of the other way around?

"I know all of you are crying right now. Grieving over your lost friend. But don't worry guys, I'm with Tara again, and forever this time. I know it hurts Kennedy to hear this, but she was in my life for the time she was meant to be. I want you to tell Giles that he was a great teacher for me. You all helped me get over my magic addiction, and I love Xander for knocking me back down to earth when Tara died. I'm in a happy place now you guys so don't cry, celebrate.

Love Forever,

Willow"

As Buffy finished the note, she too collapsed to the floor grieving. All this time she had kept her friends safe, her silent vow to keep Willow alive, she felt like it was all worthless.

Willow's funeral was a quiet one. Her parents showed up, as did some of Tara's family. They buried her right beside Tara. Buffy claimed that it would be more of a symbol that the two were together forever now. The others agreed.

Willow searched for what seemed like forever. Calling her name didn't really seem to help in what was like an endless, white room. Finally, she heard her voice. The one she loved so much. She ran in the direction of the voice and soon jumped into the arms of Tara, her blonde headed soul mate. They were now and would always be, together forever.


End file.
